welcome to news4 this week. >> some of the most popular apps with teens. as we've learn in the past week, they also hold hidden dangers. we take a look at a none must apps and what parents need to know about them. plus, it is one valuable stolen purse. this woman hit the jackpot when she swiped the bag. the crime is hurting a working family who is trying to put their daughter through college. from hilton to the high school gym. local students have decided to scale way back on their prom. all in the name of charity. hi, everyone. i'm veronica johnson. we begin with the major concerns being raise there'd week about anonymous apps.

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it has been linked to the murder of a 13-year-old in virginia and was used by an elementary school volunteer in maryland to share nude pictures of young students. here are some things you need to know. kick started as a way for people to communicate without using up their cell phone's data limit. you don't even need a phone number or an e-mail address. users communicate in a private chat room. the company claims 40% of american teenagers and kids use the app to send free unlimited texts, photos and video texts. that anonymity started attracting sexual predators. and cyber bullies. police are seeing more cases where predators are pretending to be kids to get to their victims. investigators are so concerned about kick. an alabama district attorney recently posted there warning on facebook. >> i am begging you to he at a your child's phone and delete kick app. there's nothing good that will come from it.

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dangerous to your child. >> and safety experts say parents need to know which a.m.s their kids are using and we have a parent's guide to anonymous apps. go to nbc washington app and search kick. people dying needlessly and a highly toxic culture. those are the reasons medical director for d.c.'s fire department says she is resigning. it comes less than a year after she took the post. dr. juliet said she came into reform the city's troubled ambulance service but she says the department has been too slow to make any progress in her resignation, she makes it clear that she believes there's some serious problems and not enough support to fix them. >> reporter: january 27, 35-year-old robert wiggins was stabbed in the chest in an apartment on 37th street southeast. the fire department's medical

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potentially survivable injury. but it took more than 18 minutes for an ambulance to reach him. we failed that young man, the doctor wrote. mr. wiggins was eventually taken to the hospital but he died four days later. this is a case cited by the doctor in a fiery resignation letter penned to mayor bowser. she was hired seven months ago to fix our city's ambulance service. she wrote people are dying needlessly because we're moving too slowly for emergency calls. she says she has not been able to do her job. >> i was very hopeful that the walk and the talk would match and that has not been my experience. >> in the case of mr. wiggins, they said there was a medic attending to him at the scene at the time but the medic was late

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take about 18 minutes. >> it did. that's the problem we've been having because we don't have enough resources because they get stuck at the hospital. and why women we're going to use a third party provider to offset that. >> that third party ambulance service will begin in about a month. the federal transit administration is investigating a close call on metro this week. two trains came dangerously close to hitting each other head on. it happened near the smithsonian station along the orange line after midnight on wednesday. transportation reporter adam tuss broke the story. metro confirms that trains came within 150 feet of each other. this happened after one train reportedly ran a red signal on the tracks. a metro operator had to stop the train remotely from the transit system's control center. no one was hurt. officials are starting to learn more about that oil slick in the potomac north of reagan national

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new test results show the substance is petroleum oil. more specifically, fuel oil. it is still not clear where it came from. since it was first reported a week ago, state and local agencies have been working to contain it, to clean it up. and rescue wildlife in the area. so far more than 30 oil-covered canadian geese have been rescued and taken to delaware for decontamination. one of them died. it was all over social media this week. a coupon for free chipotle. while many have been excited about it, it turned into a headache for one man. why he was bombarded by hungry chipotle lovers. and he's made d.c., we take a look at the contribution weather has made.

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it's the end of

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the washington ballet. the artistic director for the past 17 years will be stepping down at the end of it is contract in june. in a statement he said it is time to focus on new creative endeavours. the ballet company has seen significant growth during his tenure, seeing both the budget and number of students nearly quadruple over nearly two decades. the washington ballet will continue to perform the nutcracker every december. so we still get that. lots of you are helping us get the word out to help a virginia girl get her college tuition money back. lily and her parents made a stop at a dunkin' donuts in falls church last month on the way to penn state for lily's second semester. when they left, her mom maria left her purse behind. in it, $10,000 in tuition money. another customer was caught on camera swiping the purse.

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thief to know how hard her parents worked for that money. >> i would like her to know that she took it from a family, a mom and dad who worked like, did hard labor. i hope that i get to see her and get to ask her why. >> you can get a closer look at the video and the photos of the woman who took the purse on our app. just search stolen tuition. did you hear about the free breeto promotion from chipotle? a local lawyer has get toen an earful. he got hundreds of calls from people asking for the freep burrito. chipotle had closed its restaurants for a four-hour meeting. then asked people to call. lots of customers texted the number wrong. 11 eenl contacted clip oelt about the mix-up but he is still getting texts today. d.c. is known as a foodie town. now to chefs who

you eat, are making their names known on one of the most popular tv cooking shows. plus, the summer olympics are six months away. and we're

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nothing like a little friendly competition. two local chefs are fighting for the coveted title of top chef this season on bravo. the show reached the halfway mark this week. the chefs found themselves in a restaurant war. now bradley is telling her, her strategies for under pressure to make the cut. >> do not underestimate chef marjorie bradley. >> to my advantage, people assume you're not really anyone to reckon with. and i did feel like that changed pretty quickly. >> after a quiet start on top chef, she has shown that she's quick on her feet and ready for a fight. the executive chef at d.c.'s restaurants have made it to the halfway point of season 13. not only is she winning challenges, she is consistently earning praise from the judges.

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of like the gaimmicks and the game of it, you forget people are sitting there eating your food. so i think would i want to eat a full plate of that? >> but don't get sent home. rather than focusing on winning, she is putting her best dish forward one challenge at a time. >> finding the balance of taking a risk and you deserve to be there but not such a big risk that you will get sent home because you fall on your face. >> next up, the other top chef, restaurant wars. this is a show tradition and fan favorite in which competing team have to open a restaurant in one day. she said it is one of the toughest jobs she's ever done. >> it is so fast. you don't have time to think about anything. you get up at god knows what time in the morning. go, go, go. don't sleep. get up the next morning. it was very much there intense, oh, my go

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here we go. >> marjorie said she can take the heat. after all, she wanted to go on top chef for the competition, the challenge and the experience. not for tv stardom. even this camera shy chef knows that is the price of admission. >> chefs are competitive by name. kitchens are loud and hot and fast. if you're going to put us all together and make us cook competitively, there is going to be drama. >> news4 washington. >> that is so cool. her new restaurant smoked and stacked is expected to open this spring. next week, sitting down with him. he's ready to open his restaurant. about two dozen d.c. judges got to test their cooking skills there week. the chef does the judging at the superior court house. last year's champion frederick sullivan competed again this year but didn't take home

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charities with a draw so others might eat and dress for success. the superior court chief judge said it is important for judges to connect with the community. and you can see a list of the judges who won in our nbc washington app. just search judge. high school prom, it's an american rite of passage. as david culver shows us, when loud oun county high school is making some changes this year, they're throwing a party with a message. >> you think of the traditional tv sort of prom. everyone in their fancy gowns and tuxedos. >> these high school students like most have built up that image. >> the image of friends, having a good time. >> friends dressed up. >> this year some changes. i heard it as a

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>> they're scaling back a bit. in exchange for giving back. it was all their idea. >> we were bouncing themes around. we had the idea for a clarity ball and it took off from there. >> they asked the principal if they could host prom in the gym. >> one thing is we have to get that deposit back from the dulles hilton and the hotel was great. they gave the deposit back. that became the seed money for the first am of money we can donate. >> to pay the five star dinner. teachers and staff will pitch in as waiters and valets. the money saved will go to fun pediatric cancer research. >> not just the tradition of the prom. something more than that. >> it is personal for mom jennifer scott. her daunt elizabeth, a freshman here, battling leukemia. too sick to step foot in school. it has been months of hoping. >> that you'll be lucky, this will be okay. >> when elizabeth is healthy

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she'll be welcomed by fellow pediatric cancer survivors and she'll meet this community of young people. >> i couldn't be more proud of her. a new generation giving prom a deeper meaning. >> i think what we're doing here will continue on for many years. >> they'll remember what their prom was about. they'll remember what they did. >> david culver, news4. it is one of the most iconic symbols in brazil. when news4 returns, we take a closer look at the christ the redeeper statue

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we're now less than six months away from the summer olympics in rio de

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christ the redeemer statue soaring high above the city. it is rio's hottest tourist spot. and the journey to the peak is considered a holy pilgrimage by many catholics. no one can write a story like wendy so we sent her there so you will see, once you get to the top, you can discover more than an incredible view. >> you will first see it from afar. often rising above the clouds. giving it a heavenly realm. and it is indeed up there. atop a mountain. >> it represents the friendliness of the brazilian people. always with open arms to receive the visitors. >> getting up there is its own journey. a train takes out a 15-minute ride through an urban forest, the largest one in the world. and at the top, the tallest religious statue in the world. it inspires thousands of tourists each year to

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climb. buttal sa al says you lose a lo you only come for a selfie. >> it is a catholic sanctuary. people come here not only to take selfies and pictures, but they come here to have an experience with god. >> construction started in 1926, took five years to complete. this is a 98-foot statue with the wing span almost as wide. built with steel reinforced concrete and covered in a mosaic of triangular pieces of stone. individually cut by the society women of rio in the 1930s who wrote the names of their loved once on the backs of each time, hoping for divine protection. >> having the certainty that their names would be remembered by the christ himself. >> reporter: a jewish architect spent years here overseeing the construction. duriha

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accident. but levy almost lost his life when he fell from the scaffolding. >> and his workers held him up. he said let me go. everybody is going to fall. >> reporter: levy considered himself protected by the christ and later converted from judaism to catholicism. he put his family's name into a glass sill iner did and cemented it in the heart of the statue. >> a sign of his faith and devotion. so that he could be forever remembered by the heart of jesus. >> reporter: mass is held during the week at the tiny sanctuary inside the base of the statue. and people have held weddings and christenings there as well. on a clear day, the vistas of the rio land scape could melt even the heart of the most hardened heathen. >> it is a way to listen to the voice of god that speaks

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hearts. >> reporter: the word means hunch in portuguese. in latin, it finds a new meaningful heart, where do i go? for the rio faithful, the path is upward. >> that was crazy, right? you want to see more. with less than six months to go before the kickoff to the summer game in rio, you can see some of wendy's other behind the sieges stories in our nbc washington stories. just search road to rio. another first for our adorable baby panda. it took him several tries and the mama had to give him a paw to help him get back down. he has been a hit on social media from his first solid food to his first vent you are outdoors. he is shy of his birthday. that's all for news4 this week. i'm veronica johnson.

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be safe, be kind, be happy.

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